and the glossy brown of her
hair made a harmony both with her dress and with the whiteness of her
neck that contented the fastidious eye of her companion. "Polly" was now
thirty, in the prime of her good looks. Lady Tranmore's affection for
her, which had at one time even included the notion that she might
possibly become William Ashe's wife, did not at all interfere with a
shrewd understanding of her limitations. But she was daughterless
herself; her family feeling was strong; and Mary's society was an old
and pleasant habit one could ill have parted with. In her company,
moreover, Mary was at her best.

Elizabeth Tranmore never discussed her daughter-in-law with her cousin.
Loyalty to William forbade it, no less than a strong sense of family
dignity. For Mary had spoken once--immediately after the
engagement--with energy--nay, with passion; prophesying woe and
calamity. Thenceforward it was tacitly agreed between them that all
root-and-branch criticism of Kitty and her ways was taboo. Mary was,
indeed, on apparently good terms with her cousin's wife. She dined
occasionally at the Ashes', and she and Kitty met frequently under the
wing of Lady Tranmore. There was no cordiality between them, and Kitty
was often sharply or sulkily certain that Mary was to be counted among
those hostile forces with which, in some of her moods, the world seemed
to her to bristle. But if Mary kept, in truth, a very sharp tongue for
many of her intimates on the subject of Kitty, Lady Tranmore at least
was determined to know nothing about it.

On this particular evening, however, Lady Tranmore's self-control failed
her, for the first time in three years. She had not talked five minutes
with her guest before she perceived that Mary's mind was, in truth,
brimful of gossip--the gossip of many drawing-rooms--as to Kitty's
escapade with the Prince, Kitty's relations to Lady Partham, Kitty's
parties, and Kitty's whims. The temptation was too great; her own guard
broke down.

"I hear Kitty is furious with the Parhams," said Mary, as the two ladies
sat together after their rapid dinner. It was a rainy night, and the
fire to which they had drawn up was welcome.

Lady Tranmore shook her head sadly.

"I don't know where it is to end," she said, slowly.

"Lady Parham told me yesterday--you don't mind my repeating it?"--Mary
looked up with a smile--"she was still dreadfully afraid that Kitty
would play her some trick about next Friday. She knows t